PMP Exam Tip: Get Familiar with Decomposition
The PM Podcast™
“Decomposition” and “work breakdown” are probably not
the first words you want to hear with respect to the project you’re
managing. However, Decomposition is perhaps the most important technique
to understand when it comes to the Scope Management section of the PMP exam.
Decomposition involves breaking down the overall project workload into
smaller, more manageable tasks. These tasks can subsequently be broken
down into smaller tasks until each piece of work can be prioritized,
assigned to resources, and tracked in the form of a Work Breakdown
Structure (WBS). The idea is to move from large, general deliverables to
the specific work packages and tasks that make up each deliverable. In
essence, you’re carving up the individual puzzle pieces that make up the
puzzle as a whole.
PMI places great importance on
Decomposition—you’ll need to know the technique and understand how it is
applied to projects. So, what better way to learn about Decomposition
than by jumping feet first into the fire (surely there’s joke
there…decomposition – fire…but, I digress)! Anyway, why not give it a
try on one of your current projects? Apply what you’re studying in real
life! Here’s how to get started:
- Determine your main project deliverables
- Create a high-level Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) by ‘chunking’ work into smaller tasks
- Continue to break down high-level tasks into smaller tasks
- Create a system for tracking each task
- Verify that the resulting tasks are manageable
Just one word of caution: Make sure that you’re not spending more
time ‘decomposing,’ tracking, and managing tasks than it would take to
simply get the work done. Your job is to simplify—not to create more
work!
Until next time,
Cornelius Fichtner, PMP
President, OSP International LLC
The Project Management PrepCast™ - http://www.project-management-prepcast.com
The Project Management Podcast™ - http://www.project-management-podcast.com